“So you can make yourself one? I don’t think so.” She choked up some more on her metal “bat.” “I’m staying right here.”
“Damn stubborn Earth female,” he snarled and then ended with what sounded like a low curse in his own language.
“That’s right I am,” Nina said firmly. “And I—” But just then the tall grass parted again and a new form came into place. “Oh…” she whispered breathlessly.
The new creature was also huge but not in the short, squat, chunky way of the furry triceratops. It was tall and slender—as tall as a giraffe at least, Nina thought. It walked on two legs and had two arms—well, two tentacles, she amended to herself—and it was also covered in short, light purple fur. Three bright green and purple eyes stared at them from its furry face, and its mouth yawned open, revealing sharp blue teeth.
Nina wasn’t one to faint when confronted with danger, but she was feeling decidedly light-headed at this point. Her heart was skittering in her chest and her blood was pumping so fast she felt like she would pass out from the adrenaline rush. She was so afraid she felt cold all over.
But then the thing took another step forward and she felt something else—a warm, gentle curiosity washed over her. A childlike wonder at finding something new, something perhaps fun to play with.
Toy? New toy?
The thought seemed to enter her brain more in pictures than in words, but Nina found that she understood them perfectly. And she further realized that she hadn’t thought them herself—the words and the sense of curiosity and wonder had come from the strange creature towering over them in the purple grass.
“Reddix,” she breathed, not taking her eyes from the thing. “It’s…feeling at me. I can hear it inside my head.”
“I know.” The strained, harsh sound of her voice forced Nina to tear her eyes from the alien being and look at the big Kindred. What she saw made her instantly worried.
There was a tight look on Reddix’s face—a look of sheer agony, as though he was keeping himself from bellowing in pain only by sheer force of will. The lights on the Hurkon collar were going crazy as though it was soaking up his pain even though it hadn’t caused it.
All of a sudden, Nina understood. His RTS, oh my God! If I can feel this thing’s emotions, how much worse can he feel them? And what is feeling them doing to him?
From the grim, pained look on his face the answer was clear. As she watched, a slow trickle of dark red blood came from his nose. This thing, whatever it was, was poison for him. It was hurting him—overloading him.
“Nina,” he said in a low, hoarse voice. “Get back in the ship. Now.”
“No—I won’t leave you. Not like this.” He looked terrible—worse every second. Without thinking she did what she always did to comfort someone—she reached out to touch him.
As her hand closed over his bare forearm, Nina felt a shiver go through him. Then he looked at her, his face filled with wonder.
“What did you do?” he asked hoarsely. “How did you do it? How did you turn it off?”
“Turn what off?” Nina asked, honestly confused.
“The feelings—the thing’s emotions. When you touch me—”
“When I—Oh!” Suddenly, she realized what she was doing—touching him skin-to-skin with nothing between them. Panicked, she pulled her hand away.
Reddix staggered and nearly went to his knees.
“No! Oh, Goddess, it’s back.”
Nina looked around wildly to see why his condition was worse and understood. The tall alien creature was coming toward them and when she concentrated on it, she could feel even more intense curiosity and interest coming from it.
Toy? Doll? it sent as waves of inquisitiveness washed over them.
“No, no.” Nina shook her head and waved her arms at it. “Go away! Go away.”
But the thing was already reaching for her with one huge, loopy tentacle. Nina gasped as it curled around her waist and pulled her high into the air. She was suddenly right up close to it—hovering in front of its face and staring into the three bright purple and green eyes, each one as big as a dinner plate.
Mothers One and Three promised a new toy. Dolls to play with. Must be careful though. Spaker will want to chew them. Here a thought vision of the furry purple triceratops flashed across Nina’s mind—clearly it was a pet. Can’t let him hurt the new dolls. He can chew the boji-ball instead, the alien thoughts continued.
The thoughts came much more clearly now that she was touching the thing. Though, confusingly, they seemed to come to her in a rush of bright, crudely drawn pictures. It was like flipping through a child’s book of paintings and trying to understand the story they were telling. They also had a distinctly feminine feel to them—though why she thought so, Nina couldn’t say. She just knew it was true.